Attack on Titanic
by Johnny Wycliffe
Summary: Jean Kirschtien is abducted by the crew of the Titanic, a ragtag group of pirates the sail the high seas - but these are no normal pirates. These pirates have a goal and a secret, intertwined in a conflict that threatens the safety of everyone. Rating may advance to M.
1. Chapter 1: Abduction

I hate pirates.

I grew up on the shores of a no name village that was too far from anywhere to matter. Most of the men were fishermen, and the women housewives. We ate fish, mostly. It's was very boring.

At least, it was boring until last night, when a large, tattered ship pulled into our harbor and its crew descended like a pack of wolves on the town. It was over so quick that by the time I had managed to respond to the alarm bell, our entire town had effectively been captured.

I'm Jean Kirschtien, pronounced John. I'm technically supposed to be defending this town I call home, but it's makes little difference when you're this outclassed. I hardly raised my swords when this girl literally grabbed my neck and lifted me up like she would a kitten. She wasn't even looking at me at the time!

She drags me to her compatriots, who looked like they had been through a few wars each, and throws me right into the midst.

"This guy attacked me. Permission to kill?" An icy sharp voice comes from the woman who caught me.

"Negative." Says the shortest of the bunch. "Look, he has the 3DMG on his waist. If he can use it, we can use him."

"Ya really think he's just gonna say 'sure, I'll forgive ya fer burning my home down! No problem!'" Says another girl, one with dark reddish hair.

"We aren't burning anything down, Sash." Says the short guy. "In fact, go get Connie and go back to the ship before he burns anything down."

Sash scratches her head. "Er, it might be kinda late fer that-"

The angriest looking guy of the bunch, not much taller than the leader, with brown hair and green eyes spins on his heel and starts sniffing the air. "Smoke's coming from the easts." He grunts.

The leader sighs. "Numbskulls. All of you need to get your heads out of your asses and listen to orders. Ymir, take Bertholdt and put out that fire. Sash, go with them. Mikasa, take your prisoner back to the ship with Eren. Tell Armin to get the ship ready."

Eren (the leader pointed to everyone as he assigned orders, conveniently) turns to Mikasa, my captor. "Well, move out. Don't want cleaning duty for a month. Again."

Mikasa grunts and grabs me by the back of the neck again.

"Hey! Put me down! I don't want to go with you assho-MMPH!"

The woman clamps her other hand over my mouth with enough force to chip a tooth. "Quiet." She growls.

Not like I had any choice.

She slings me over her shoulder and stuffs a dirty rag in my mouth to keep my silent. I had a nice view of her shapely ass as she strides through the streets down towards the boat.

Had this been any other situation, I might've asked her out based on that ass.

Both Mikasa and Eren are silent the whole way to the boat. Eren has a chain wrapped around his neck which continued to clank in the breeze that brought them to our cove. I glance around, but all the buildings are shut tight. It doesn't look like anybody's going to help me, even if anyone else is alive.

Once we arrive at the schooner, I am pulled off her shoulder and set on the ground. Standing up proved useless when she planted her foot on my head and nearly gave me a concussion just to keep me down. She could've just asked.

"We've got a new prisoner. Make sure we have a place for him." She says completely deadpan.

A much more cheerful voice comes from above. "Okay! I'll make up a bed for him in your quart-"

"No, stick him in the brig." She says, still deadpan. "I'm not touching this one."

Wait, what? HEY!

Mikasa lifts her foot from my head and pulls me back up by my collar. For the first time I can see her face properly.

"Listen up. Try anything and I slit your throat, orders or not."

I gulp nervously.

I guess she takes my silence as an affirmative, as she then proceeds to throw me _thirty feet straight up_ and onto the deck of the ship.

No, I'm not exaggerating. One hand, straight up thirty feet. I weigh 180 pounds which is not something a girl can chuck around at all under normal circumstances. Needless to say, I wasn't in a state to do much when a pretty blond woman with kind eyes leans over and politely snaps handcuffs onto my wrists.

Sadly, the next few hours are a blur. There's a reason I wasn't a fisherman back in my hometown, and that reason is I get seasick. Very seasick. I wasn't aware I had that much to eat today until I saw it spilled out in front of me.

At some point, someone looked down and saw my predicament, then left. Slightly after, two more figures came down the steps. From what I gather later, it was about three hours, but it felt about ten times that.

"Keep him still. If I hit the wrong spot we'll need to wait more time to make another batch." Says a calm male voice.

"And that will have to wait a few days, if that storm hits us." Says another voice that I can't quite place.

Two firm hands grip my left shoulder and head, and something pricks my neck. From the prick, a burning sensation washes over me, overriding the sickly feeling and making my head clear again.

I look at my two saviors. One wearing goggles over her eyes, and the other is the girl that handcuffed me. I look around, but the owner of the male voice isn't to be seen.

"Well, he seems alright." Mutters Goggles. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Wh-what happened?"

She holds up a needle proudly. "It worked! Only a twenty percent chance, and it worked!"

Twenty percent isn't high, right?

The blond girl removes her gloves and starts walking up the stairs. From the hatch above, I hear the male voice. "Don't scare him."

The woman in front of me sighs. "Aw, well. We cured you of your seasickness. You can stay down here until we need you." She gets up and turns on her heel.

"Wait! I don't want to stay down here!" I complain. "It's dark and smells bad."

The woman sniffs. "It smells bad because you barfed. Clean it up. If it's too dark, try wearing two eye patches." She shrugs and almost closes the door before I can ask my next question.

"H-how would wearing eye patches help?"

"Once you get accustomed to pitch dark, this light level will be sufficient to allow you to navigate easily."

I try to jam my foot in the door, but she slams it shut with such force the frame loosens a bit. I stub my toe on the freshly shut door.

"Ah, Fu-Whoa!"

Hopping around on one foot was a bad idea, especially in the dark and vomit strewn floor.

My last thought before losing consciousness is that I really need to get my temper in check.

* * *

"Wake up." Says the coldest voice I can imagine.

With that command I instantly snap awake. My eyes meet Mikasa's beautiful and terrifying orbs. Beside her stands the blond girl.

"Wow, I didn't think that would work." Comments the blond girl.

Mikasa grunts. "Get Marco over here. This idiot stinks." She turns and walks away.

I'm no longer down in the bowels of the ship, but my new position isn't really better. I'm tied to the mast, rag back in my mouth and arms and legs lashed securely. I recognize some of the people walking back and forth on the deck, but they're all pointedly ignoring me.

Honestly, nothing these pirates had done has made any sense yet. They come to our small town, attack us, take me hostage, cure my seasickness and tie me to the mast. Actually, all of that made sense but the cure part. I want to curse at them and demand an explanation, but there's a rag in my mouth. It tastes like fermented sweat.

The blond girl steps up to me. "I'm told that the cure worked?"

Huh? She was there. She should know. I nod my head anyway.

"Ah, good. Frankly, I wasn't sure you were going to survive the journey if it didn't work. I'm Christa!"

"Mpphh mmmhh Meeeph mphmphmmmm." Which roughly translates to "I am Jean Kirstein."

"Oh, um… I'll see if I can get that gag removed." She smiles apologetically. "If I did it without permission I'd get cleaning duties."

Horrible. I only had to do them every day, being the junior member of the police force of my old town. It might be worse on this ship though, but still. I glower at her, hoping to get the point across, but she literally turns and skips away like a five year old.

I wonder if she's really going to try to get my gag removed. This crew is slightly odd. By which I mean completely incomprehensible.

A shaven crew member walks up to me and looks me up and down before offering his hand. "Hi! I'm Connie Springer."

Wait, this is Connie? That's not a guy's name. Also, my hands are bound you freak, I'm not going to shake your hand.

Connie continues to hold his hand out despite the glare. "Welcome to the crew, by the way. We're not the nicest bunch, but we all get along. Try not to piss anyone off, since live crew can be punished for killing other crew members, but the dead can't come back to life." He smirks with the last sentence.

"Mmmph."

"Glad we had this chat." Connie turns around and heads back the way he came before turning right back around. "Oh, I forgot to mention this. You're _technically_ a hostage, but if you don't work, you don't eat. Have fun!"

He waves as I continue to grumble at him. What the hell is wrong with these pirates?

After a few more minutes, the blond shows up with the black haired short leader. The leader has an extremely bored look on his face.

"See? Tied and bound!" Says the blond.

"As he should be. I still don't see why I was needed for anything." Says the leader guy.

"I need you to take out his gag!" Says the blond with a smile.

"Why the fuck do I need to do that? Do it your damn self!" The short guy turns on his heel.

"But Mikasa will kill me if I do it! You're the only one who can!"

"I still see no need for me to do anything."

"He needs to eat, or else he'll be useless." The blond crosses her arms.

The leader stops and sighs. "Fine. Until you assholes can figure out how to get along, I'll continue to solve your stupid problems for you. MIKASA!"

A loud thunk is heard from lower in the ship, then several thumps and yells, then splintering wood, and then Mikasa appears on the deck of the ship, panting ever so slightly. She still has those dead eyes though.

"Christa's been bitching at me about your prisoner. Do what she asks."

Mikasa dips her head as the leader tches and walks away.

Christa turns to Mikasa. "I'm removing his gag, mmk? I need to get him some food."

Mikasa looks at Christa with her unchanging expression. "Do what you want."

Christa claps her hands together. "Good! Also, while Levi is letting me order you around, why don't you go get some bread from the pantry? I want to talk to him."

I thought Christa's forehead was going to catch fire from the force of Mikasa's glare. Christa maintains a small smile even under this onslaught, and once Mikasa disappears she turns to me and finally removes the cloth.

"Thanks."

"No problem! I don't know what she was thinking, tying you up here."

I shrug. At least, I attempt to. I'm still bound very tight. "Nothing has made a lick of sense since you invaded, I'm not even surprised anymore. So, Christa is it?"

"Yep! I'm the resident doctor, along with Armin."

Armin must be that lady with the goggles. Hmm.

"So, why I am I here exactly? I heard you wanted to use me for something, but what?"

"Why, breeding stock of course!" She says with her smile still locked in place.

I think my jaw hit the floor.

"No, just kidding. We're kinda shorthanded right now, and you have the 3DMG and probably know how to use it." She leans in close to my face. I press my skull to the mast I'm lashed too, but she's still to close. Her face is very, very cute though. Once again, I find myself thinking that under different circumstances… "Do you know how useful 3DMG is in ship-to-ship combat?"

I shake my head.

"It's better than grappling hooks to pull two ships together, you can climb into the rigging much faster, and you can do some other tricks that involves flying through the air." She puts her index finger to her lips. "We just lost our old 3DMG pro, so you have quite the shoes to fill."

"Well, maybe I don't want to do it." I would have folded my arms had they been free. I really hate being bound.

"Then we'll have to throw you overboard." Christa shrugs.

She still has that cheerful smile. It's starting to get more disturbing than Mikasa's constant glare.

Hey, maybe all the crew's expressions are frozen. Levi has that sneer, Eren has that determined look… Oh shit, then what's mine going to be? Please don't be something stupid like smiling goofily. Or maybe… Mom said if I made a face enough it would stay in that position. Maybe she was right?

I am roused from this entirely productive line of thought by something large, brown and hard being forcibly shoved in my mouth, threatening to choke me.

It's bread. Get your mind out of the gutter.

"MMMPH!" I yell at the black haired woman who had just returned from the galley. She continues to stare at me balefully.

"Mikasa! That wasn't nice."

"Wasn't ordered to be nice."

"Well, I'm going to fix that then!" Christa gets a determined glint in her eyes-

Wait, does Mikasa actually look _scared?_

"From now on, I want you to be nice to him. Not like a slave or anything, just civil."

Oh. Oh god. I just realized that Christa was enjoying this. She's actually enjoying torturing Mikasa. And it is torture, judging by the horrified look slowly eating away at the hardened disposition she had worn every time I had seen her so far.

In my mental list of women not to piss off (Technically, all of them, but the top ten are ones you REALLY don't want to piss off) Christa now ranks number one, with Mikasa a close second. Then there's a huge gap and then my mother comes in at number three.

I don't expect her ranking to remain high, especially if there are more women like these two here on this ship.

"Christa, that's not possible-"

"It is! Just be civil! It's not rocket science!"

I tilt my head to the side. "What's a rocket?"

Christa shrugs. "Armin was talking about them. Something from one of his old texts."

His?

"I fail to see how your associate's research has anything to do with-" Mikasa crosses her arms. The word 'associate' is said with a sneer.

"It just means it isn't difficult." Christa shakes her head, and her smile drops in favor of a serious expression. "Don't tie him to things without a good reason, don't go out of your way to piss him off, that kind of stuff."

Mikasa narrows her eyes, and the steel comes back to her voice. "If that's an order."

"It is." Christa sighs. "Anyway, we can't keep him in the hold much longer. We've got a shipment coming tomorrow, and he needs a place to stay. I'm going to put him-"

"No."

"Every other room is full. We've let you keep your room to yourself, but we have too many people right now."

Mikasa looks at Christa with her diamond hard eyes, then turns them to me. Slowly, ever so slowly, she raises her left arm. I watch in something akin to fascination as she sticks her hand into the folds of her jacket and draws a knife. She suddenly switches to blinding speed and I stand stock still as the soft thumps of the ropes that had been binding me falling to the floor. Mikasa sheathes her dagger, but I still stand there without moving.

"I suppose throwing him overboard or gutting him is not considered nice." Mikasa says in her usual flat tone. "Pity. Show him to my- our room later."

She turns and in three quick and long strides she disappears down the hatch into the lower deck with a smashing of wood.

"Levi needs to put a tighter leash on his student, don't you think?" Christa mutters.

I pull the bread out of my mouth and take a reasonable bite out of the stale chunk. Around the mouthful, I respond. "I have to stay with her?"

"Unless you liked the hold, yes. Don't worry, she's a woman of her word. She follows orders to the letter without fail… just she's definitely the letter of the law, rather than spirit of the law type."

"Joy. Well, thanks for getting me down. I owe you one."

Christa waves me off. "Don't worry about it. We all take care of each other on this ship, though it may not look it. When it comes to battle, we all have no choice but to trust our lives to those around us, so we all have a special bond."

She grabs both of my hands in hers and looks at me with eyes that I swear contained stars. "I look forward to working with you. Welcome to the Titanic!"


	2. Chapter 2: Airtime

Christa had barely told me the name of the ship when another woman approached her and whispered something. I remembered her freckles, but not her name. It started with a 'y' I think.

Thus, I was left to wander the Titanic and hopefully not piss anyone off enough to get myself killed.

Having only a small knowledge of large sailing ships and their operation, the first thing I do is find a good vantage point to watch the crew work with the rigging.

Surprisingly, only one person is up on the sails. Eren, the brown haired serious kid. I trace his movement as he leaps around like one of those birds that hop back and forth. He never slips, despite the sizable gaps he's clearing. I wonder how long he had to train to be that good.

To be honest, I was a bit jealous. I like heights and solitude, both of which could be found up there, but my 3DMG is nowhere to be seen on deck. They must have removed it while I was asleep.

The reason I had joined the police back home (aside from crippling seasickness) was to get the gear so I could climb high onto buildings. Of course, then I learned too late that actually using the stuff except in a small practice areas was against the law I had been charged with upholding.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still far from happy that I got kidnapped and got conscripted to fight for them, but I could see a silver lining to the cloud, and that's me finally being able to use my 3DMG as often as I want.

Of course, they all seem to think that I am an expert with it already, but I frankly have no idea what I'll do once the tanks I had filled… yesterday, maybe, are empty. Back at the station, we had a massive contraption to which we hooked the silver tanks to refill them, but I don't think that it would fit on this ship properly even if they had tried to drag it along.

Christa did say that they used to have another 3DMG user on the ship, so they had to have a way around the problem… right?

Eren lands right beside me. I belatedly look up to see he had just fallen 30 feet straight down without seeming to have hurt himself. Maybe everyone on this ship has iron bones or something. They certainly don't seem human.

"You're the new guy." Eren says, then grabs and sniffs my arm. I attempt to yank it away, but he has a massive grip strength. "Okay, sorry about that. It's an old habit I picked up."

I sigh. "I'm starting to think there's something wrong with everyone on this ship."

Eren chuckles. "Yeah, sounds about right. 'Specially that Hanji woman. Has a hard-on for anything she doesn't recognize immediately. I imagine she's already checked you out thoroughly, and decided whether or not she's going to follow you around the ship writing notes."

"She… Follows people?" I question uncertainly.

Eren nods. "When I joined the crew, she tailed me for a week. Only way to get rid of her is to get fresh meat on the crew or find her something else to study. Luckily for you, if she decides to follow you, you'll be free tomorrow."

I narrow my eyes trying to follow his thought process. "I heard someone mention a shipment. Is Hanji getting something unusual?"

Eren purses his lips. "Yeah, I can tell you. You're part of the crew now anyway. Apparently, someone out east found a giant squid washed up on the shore. There's another ship carrying it to a museum slightly south of your town."

I frown. "This isn't a business deal, is it?"

"We're pirates. We take what we want. Besides, if it went in a museum, it wouldn't be put to any use." His screws up his nose and speaks with a weird accent when he says the last line, then sighs. "The whole place is gonna smell like squid guts soon. Savor the fresh air."

I gulp. "Yeah, thanks. Say, do you know where my 3DMG is? I don't know who took it or where it went."

"Mm, I would suspect that Armin took it to study it. The last 3DMG owner was so possessive of her stuff that she never let him even touch them. Practically drove him mad." Eren smirks. "Armin and Hanji are like two peas in a pod. I'd recommend avoiding them as much as possible unless you want to have experiments conducted on you."

I had heard about mad scientists. Knowing I was effectively trapped with two of them on this ship wasn't exactly comforting. "I think that warning's a bit late."

Eren's eye twitches. "What did they do?"

"Cured my seasickness." I stretch my arms out, since I still feel the ropes for some reason despite them being long gone. "Actually, I'm really happy to not be puking right now, so their experiments can't be that bad- what's wrong?"

Eren is suddenly completely pale. "They wouldn't… No, they totally would. Look, if you suddenly grow a new limb, don't freak out, ok? Just… Just go down into the hold and don't come out until I tell you it's okay." He crouches down and takes a flying leap, landing without a sound and bolting without a second's pause.

"Grow an extra appendage? What is this, a children's bedtime story?" I mutter. "I mean, really."

Of course, then again, seasickness is supposedly incurable. Maybe I shouldn't put is past Armin and this Hanji character.

Speaking of Armin, she's definitely a she, but everyone keeps saying he. Maybe she was having a gender crisis or something and the rest of the crew had decided to go along with it. It seems everybody is having one of those now. Maybe I'll ask Christa. She's the nicest person on this ship that I've met so far.

Currently, nobody else is up on deck. This ship is a very nice one, if a bit spotty in places. The design is a narrow one built for speed, one that wasn't very common, since it cuts down on cargo space. I think I have seen two the entire time I had been living at home. Much like its crew though, it looks a bit battle worn. Both the front and rear mast are braced, and I suspect that they had both been severed before. It looks like these pirates do end up fighting a lot.

At the rear, there is the wheel and the captain's cabin, which looks unoccupied. I only ponder how the wheel can be completely unmanned for a fraction of a second before someone taps me on the shoulder.

"I believe these belong to you?"

I turn to find a boy my age, with black hair and an abundance of freckles adorning his face. He has a pleasant expression on his face and is holding out my 3DMG… missing a part. The left vent isn't properly sealed without that part, so venting the gas to go faster will also redirect me somewhat, which is less than ideal.

"Oh, thanks… er, did, uh, something fall off of these while you were carrying them?"

"Not that I noticed. Eren just handed these to me and said to bring them to you, and told me..." The boy holds his left hand up, which is free of equipment, in a quote-unquote gesture. "…'make sure he didn't grow a tail or anything.' It's kinda funny."

I twist around and present my backside to him. "Do you see a tail? I don't feel one."

The boy shakes his head. "No tail."

I sigh. "That's good. I _thought_ he was joking about me growing a new limb."

He eyes me up and down, a frown appearing on his face. "Did Hanji get her hands on you?"

I roll my eyes. "I guess Eren wasn't exaggerating. I'm Jean, by the way." I stick out my right hand.

Marco shifts my 3DMG gear to his left hand and shakes my hand with his right. "Marco. Actually, I was given the job of telling you what you're supposed to be doing tomorrow when we get that other ship, so I might as well do that as we look for that piece."

I smile. "Yeah, sounds good. It's just a metal plate, but without it I'm going to end up flying sideways."

"That's _not_ good." Marco comments. I take the gear off of him and start on the lengthy process of buckling myself into the complicated harness. Even though I've strapped myself in every day for the past four years, I still take a bit long to put them on, but just because it's so complicated.

Marco continues to talk as I struggle with the left leg. "I'm glad we have a new 3DMG user. It's always so complicated assaulting other ships without it."

I glance up to see Marco leaning against the rail and looking out to sea. "I… What happened to your old 3DMG user? I'm sorry if it's insensitive to ask, but I'm kinda curious."

Marco smiles sadly. "Yeah, you have the right to know. Her name was Petra. She was great with the gear, she made it look like she was genuinely flying. One of our victims decided not to go down without a fight, and she decided to stay behind to give the rest of us a chance to escape. Her gear broke sometime during the battle, and she was unable to flee."

"Oh." I finish putting on the rest of the heavy metal contraption before standing up and letting Marco lead the way into the ship.

"We've been very careful since her sacrifice about maintaining our gear and making sure our boarding plans have a way to get out of any situation possible. We were all hit hard by her death."

"That's… I'm supposed to fill her shoes, right?"

"Yeah. Make sure your gear is always in good condition, okay?"

I nod vigorously. "If I didn't after hearing that story, I would have to be extremely stupid. Hey, is that the metal plate?" I point to something glinting on the floor.

Marco picks it up. "It feels like it's the same material. Is this it?"

I nod in relief. "Yeah. Without that I'm screwed if I actually have to do anything."

Marco hands me the exhaust cover and I reach back to snap it into place. Frankly, those covers popped off so frequently, it was criminal. I seem to recall there being a reason they popped off, but whatever it was, wasn't good enough.

Marco turns around and points back the way we came. "Let's see what you can do with that then, Hmm?"

I frown. "Shouldn't I save my gas for tomorrow?"

He waves his hand dismissively. "I guess nobody told you, but we have a compressor here on the ship. Armin designed it, so it's a lot smaller than the ones you're probably used too."

"Can I see it?"

Marco smiles and turns back to head deeper into the ship as his response. I follow behind him as he heads past rooms marked with "storage" and "chemical supplies" and "ammunition." There are a few unmarked ones… Oh look, one of the doors is literally multiple pieces patched together. Above the door is a sign reading "KEEP OUT."

"Hey Marco, is this…"

"Yeah, that's Mikasa's room. Nobody's brave enough to try to sleep in the same room as her, so she gets the place to herself. Mikasa's the one that dragged you in, right?"

I'm going to be sleeping in there. Behind the utterly smashed door. My god, I hate whoever decides fate.

"Yeah, she's the one who did the kidnapping, if only on the orders of Levi. Why's her door so busted?"

"Well… It's a bit of a story."

"I have time."

Marco start walking again, me a half step behind him. "Let's see… Levi found her as a kid and took her in. Levi used to belong to a clan of people up north that have some radical techniques to make you into the best fighters around. Mikasa went through the techniques as well, which is why she's so strong. Not that she ever said this out loud, but most of us suspect that she feels she has a debt to Levi. Christa has more of the opinion that Mikasa has a crush on him, but that's Christa. Either way, anytime Levi calls her name, she takes the shortest path to him ignoring doors, people, and other obstructions completely."

"Oh, so that's what the crashing was earlier." I comment. I knew it was Mikasa already, but now I know why she had been slightly out of breath.

"Yeah, if you noticed, the wall across from her room has splinters embedded in it. A few people have almost had their eyes poked out when she comes bursting out." "Then standing in front of her door to discuss this is a pretty bad idea I guess." I shudder. Maybe I should stay in the hold after all.

Marco looks distracted for a second. "Oh, yeah, I guess it would be dangerous to stop here, wouldn't it? Well, we're both fine, so it doesn't matter." Marco continues to walk down the hall as if this kind of "oh wait wasn't that potentially lethal?" happened all the time.

Mental note: Nobody on this ship is even remotely sane. They're all just hiding it with varying degrees of success.

"Here we are!" Marco throws open a door and gestures for me to enter. "See that thing in the far left corner? That's the compressor."

I walk over to the indicated contraption and stare down at it. "This."

"Yep."

"This thing is it in its entirety."

"I think that there's some more to it, but yeah, that's most of it."

I remove one of my gas canisters and place it in the only slightly larger contraption. It's a perfect fit, which is a good sign, but… "The one we have back on land is the size of a barn. How on earth did you make it small enough to be carried by hand?"

Marco shrugs. "We have two certifiable geniuses on board. If you can understand anything they say, you're ahead of me."

Comforting. Still, I'd have to ask Armin how it works, even if I wouldn't understand. I'm just curious like that.

"See that light? It's how full your tank is. If it's green it's full, and it turns to yellow and red depending on how much is left."

"How do you know? Do you use 3DMG too?"

He shakes his head. "I used to help Petra a lot. She died protecting me, you know. I wasn't even supposed to be on the enemy ship at the time, but I was trying so hard to be useful that I…"

Marco chokes up and I awkwardly pat him on the back. I'm not good with people crying.

Although, something seems off from what he said-

He takes a deep breath and shakes like a dog. "Ok! Sorry about that, I get a bit emotional sometimes. Let's go back to the surface to see how you do!"

Something was still nagging me about his explanation, but I follow him up nonetheless.

On the deck, he points towards the front mast. "Okay, here's what I want you to do. Latch onto that mast, swing around and face back this way, grab onto the yardarm of the rear mast and swing up into the sky. Stay up there for a few minutes using whatever moves you can think of. No touching the ground until you see me waving my arms."

I smirk. "Yeah, sure."

I draw my control units, leaving the blades in their holsters for now. I tilt my hips so my left unit is pointing directly at the foremast. Normally this distance is too far for a 3DMG user to hit, being directly at the end of the cable's reach. Me? I'm Jean Kirschtien. I can do anything.

The cable finds perfect purchase and I lift my feet up while reeling in the cable. The wind tears at my hair as I quickly reach a high velocity. I whip around the mast, momentum carrying me in a smart arc. I instantly aim my right hook at the lowest beam of the other sail and release the other hook. Now, my forward motion carries me upwards. I barely rise above the top of the masts, but I can fix that. I release the right cable and twist around. I prepare to launch both cables at the bottom beam as I pass it and build up some momentum that way, swinging under the mast. I fire the two cables at precisely the right moment and swing down, almost clipping Marco with my feet as I reach the bottom of my arc.

This time, I end up a full ten feet over the top of the mast. I do a quick midair twirl to take in the beautiful sight. Nothing, I repeat, _nothing_ is better than the feeling of flying through the air. I can see the glittering blue ocean waters in all directions, unmarred by anything. Up here, I could almost forget my situation down below.

Unfortunately, gravity likes me too much to let me go. I start falling back down and I reorient again to latch onto the top beam of the front mast. This sends me into a forty-five degree dive that to be honest scares even me a little, because this is the worst angle to be at, having no direct way to fix this orientation. I calculated the swing right though, and end up back high in the air once again. I look around in the fraction of a second where I'm floating perfectly still, the sound of the wind the only noise rushing past my ears.

Glancing down I see Marco enthusiastically waving his arms around. Time to descend. But first, I want to try something. See, the cables for 3DMG are slightly elastic. Not enough that you would notice until some serious strain is put on them, but it's there. I launch my left cable towards the rear mast, turn, fire the right cable at the same height on the front mast and let the cable reel out. I wait until the last second before pressing the brake on my handle grips.

The cables lock out with a snap and I bend over backwards with the force. Upside down, I see that a small crowd has gathered, and strangely enough, Mikasa is there too. Christa is right next to her, along with Connie, Armin, Sash, the girl with y in her name, two blokes whose name I don't know, Christa-

Wait, two Christas?

The cables snap back, springing me back upwards, aided by me reeling in the cables as fast as possible. I rocket straight upwards and soar high in the sky, over thirty feet above the topmost mast. I was in no position to enjoy the view though. First, why are there two Christas? That makes less than no sense. Second, I spot a speck in the distance off to the port side of the ship.

These two things break my concentration enough that I make a mistake. A mistake while falling downwards at prodigious speed. My right hook finds its mark, but the left goes a few inches too wide and glances off the mast. Consequently, I wasn't ready for the direction I ended up heading in-

Right towards Marco.

His eyes widen as I come screaming in his direction. There's no time for me to dodge, my hook's still retracting from my miss-

I close my eyes and brace for impact.

And after not feeling any impact, I open them back up. Down below, something incomprehensible was happening. Where Marco had been standing, a black cloud was swirling. As I watch, this time still making sure to keep track of where I was going with my swings, the cloud coalesces.

Marco appears from the black cloud and locks eyes with me. His cheerful expression gone.

Well fuck.


	3. Chapter 3: Preperations

I stood in place, frozen with fear and the still slightly wispy Marco marches up to me, his eyes quite literally ablaze.

"I, uh, I'm sorry! I d-didn't meant to do that, I m-missed the front mast and then I was off course and-"

"Shut up." Marco growls.

I shut up. My jaws crash together so hard I think I chip a tooth.

He continues to glare at me. I continue to not move, eyes locked with the burning orbs that had replaced Marco's usual brown eyes.

After about three eternities, Marco sighs and his eyes fade back to normal.

I continue to vibrate in place as his usual smile replaces his scowl. "Sorry about that." He dusts off my shoulder, and I only violently flinch the first two times.

"Wh-what the hell are you?"

Marco sighs. "Look, I'm sure all your life you've been told that there's no such thing as ghosts, right?"

I nod. That's a given, or else more people would have seen them. I fail to see the relevance-

"That was true until twenty years ago."

I stop shaking, curiosity overcoming fear. "What? That doesn't make sense."

"It's correct enough for now. Well, let me put it this way. Demons, ghosts, human half-breeds and the like have not been able to exist for the past thousand years until recently."

"And… you're one of them?"

He nods. "I happen to be a wraith."

Wraiths. From the stories I liked to scare little kids with, they are ethereal creatures made of black smoke (check) that have glowing eyes (check) and feed on the fear they inspire in people.

"…Do you eat people's fear?" I ask, drawing myself up and trying to relax my face.

"Yes. Sorry, but I saw the opportunity and took it. I don't like scaring people, so… I have to take my meals where I find them." He lowers his head as he speaks.

I take a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, well, no harm no foul." I smirk at Marco. "Well, that's kinda awesome, if you ask me. You can fly right?"

Marco hesitates. "Yes, but again, I don't like being a wraith. I can't maintain my form when flying and when people see me they tend to scream, so I keep my feet planted on the deck most of the time."

I nod and look around at the others. They all seem to be bored, like me panicking was a normal occurrence.

Maybe it is. I don't know. I wonder how the others reacted when they found out.

Christa pushes to the front of the gathered crowd and grabs my hands in an overly friendly manner. "Jean, what happened? I thought you were gonna die for a minute there!"

Oh, right. I point off in the direction of the speck. "I saw something out that way. Is it the ship we're after?"

Eren and Levi exchange a glance.

"We're not supposed to get to that ship for another day." Eren mutters. "What color was it?"

I shrug. "I didn't get a good look at it. I was flying very fast and had something else on my mind-"

Sash raises her hand. "I know! It's Bradley!"

Levi starts cursing under his breath, slowly raising his voice until everyone on the ship could hear it. When he pauses to take a breath, Christa turns to me with her ever present smile and says "Bradley's the guy who keeps chasing us down. He seems to have an issue with us harboring a wraith, among other things."

I think I've heard the name Bradley before. "Do you mean the former admiral of the royal fleet? The one nobody's seen for the past twenty years?"

Christa nods. "Twenty years. Same as how long the mermaids and wraiths and the others have been around."

Mermaids?

"Alright you fucktards, everyone get to battle stations. We need to make sure he doesn't kill any more of you retards or else were gonna have to raid yet another filthy village." Levi starts shouting orders to everyone.

The crowd scrambles around me, heading for their battle positions. I watch everyone scramble around and watch to see where Levi heads, as I still need to be assigned a battle position.

Levi doesn't move, which makes talking to him a bit easier. His glare on the other hand…

"S-Sir, where am I-"

"Right there."

He points to the port railing.

"…At the railing?"

"You have to be there to anchor the ships together, asswipe."

Oh, right. I turn and bolt for the railing. Scanning the horizon, I still don't see the enemy ship. It might've been an island or any other ship. Actually…

Sash seemed very sure of herself, and nobody doubted her. She said that it was Bradley, and everyone just accepted it. Of course, they might just be being prudent. If there's the chance it _is_ Bradley, and he _is_ hunting them, then it would be a horrible mistake to just let him approach.

Bradley is famous amongst people who live by the ocean. He's sometimes referred to as the tyrant of the sea, mainly because of his more aggressive pirate takedowns. There was a rumor my father told me about how he once set an entire village on fire for the sole purpose of capturing one pirate, and not even a famous one at that. Just a little powder monkey if I recall. It was a hell of a surprise when he disappeared. It is said that he literally screamed a speech from a podium in the Gregoria harbor, then got in his ship with his crew and was never seen again. I wasn't exactly born at the time, so I can't verify it, but it's the best guess I have-

"MOVE!"

I instinctively dodge backwards, just in time to dodge HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT.

A large metal tube is rising out of the deck right where I was standing. It's about 3 feet diameter, and twenty feet tall. It rises to its full height and I see the base, which has some sort of loading chamber like an oversized sniper rifle and a swivel where it mounts to the ship.

Connie and Sash walk up from below decks, Sash under Connie's arm, in a chokehold that was considered particularly vicious. Both of them are laughing though, so it must be okay. I hope.

"Hey, you two. What's this thing?" I tap the silver tube and it rings with a hollow tone.

"It's a cannon." The respond in unison. Then they proceed to stare at me like that was all the explanation they needed.

"Ok, but where's the ammo? The gunpowder? What kind of shot needs a freaking 20 foot barrel anyway? The ones I saw before were always under ten feet long."

Connie points to himself and Sash. "We're the shot. And the blast. And if it's shorter, we end up in the water."

Sash shudders. "I hate water."

"Um… The blast? And wouldn't this thing kill you as soon as it detonates?"

Sash and Connie burst into flames.

I wish I was making this up. I instinctively twirl and launch myself across the ship, 3DMG cables whining as they reel in as fast as they can go. Once a good distance from the burning duo, I look back, curiosity getting the better of me.

They're both still standing in the flames, looking perfectly healthy. In fact, Sash is waving at me.

It takes my brain a bit longer than it should have to figure out what was going on.

These two aren't human. Just like Marco isn't human.

That opens another question. Who else on this ship isn't human? And if I stay on this ship, will I remain human?

Something clicks in my mind.

"Marco wasn't always a wraith, was he?" I murmur to the empty air. In my head, the two things Marco said about Petra click together:

"Yeah, you have the right to know. Her name was Petra. She was great with the gear, she made it look like she was genuinely flying. One of our victims decided not to go down without a fight, and she decided to stay behind to give the rest of us a chance to escape. Her gear broke sometime during the battle, and she was unable to flee."

"I used to help Petra a lot. She died protecting me, you know. I wasn't even supposed to be on the enemy ship at the time, but I was trying so hard to be useful that I…"

Marco was with Petra on the other ship… and neither of them made it out alive. Marco, for whatever reason, turned into a wraith, and Petra… didn't.

"Yo, Jean!" Connie calls. "Get over here! You need to aim the cannon while we're in it."

My jaw drops. "Why can't one of you aim the other? I mean, won't it be cramped in there with the two of you?"

Sash wraps her body with unnatural flexibility around Connie's still burning form and leers at me over his shoulder. "We're married."

"…Oh." I shake my head. "Whatever, just get in." I continue under my breath. "I'm going crazy. I know it now. I am going batshit crazy."

"Ready!" Connie chirps from inside the metal tube.

I sigh and head to the rear end of the cannon. There's a lot of buttons, thankfully all labeled.

Hey, auto target sounds like a good button to push.

The massive metal tube rotates downwards and slightly to the rear of the ship. I take a deep breath. "Okay, go ahead and-"

A booming shockwave pounds at my ears and I clap them shut with my hands, only to let go in astonishment as two fireballs race across the ocean and race towards the horizon.

"Holy shit."

"Yeah, they're quite the sight." Marco appears beside me. I'm not sure how literally you need to take that statement.

"If they can fly like that, I don't think the barrel length matters too much…" I remark. "What are they?"

"They're demons. Fresh out of hell. Frankly, I don't care for them, but they do liven up the ship a bit when they're setting everything on fire… and sometimes when they aren't as well." Marco sighs. "There's a lot of strange people on this ship, Jean. We have an agreement not to talk about it if we don't want to, so don't ask me anything more."

I nod. "I guess I'll just figure it out on my own."

"Remember, don't piss anyone off, or you'll get killed." Marco turns to me as he says this, placing a hand on either shoulder.

"Yeah, I got a warning already." I glance over his shoulder. "Hey, is that the enemy ship?"

Marco spins around and looks at the water off the port side of the ship. A faint glow can be seen in the fading light. "Looks like Connie and Sasha did their jobs."

"Yup!"

I spin around and clutch at my heart, which all of a sudden was feeling a bit painful.

Connie sighs. "What, didn't expect us?"

"No. I didn't. I thought you were _over there_." I point to the burning ship, which is markedly closer. Maybe another two minutes before we'd be within shouting distance.

Sasha snorts. "What, and get killed? What would be the point of us sticking around on a burning ship anyway?"

I just stare at them. So many questions and admonishments and statements of incredulity are flitting around my head that nothing comes out.

"Alright, it's time for you to get ready." Marco grabs my shoulder.

"Okay. My 3DMG is good, I already checked it. I'm ready to secure the ships together."

Marco gives me an odd look. "Why would you do that?"

"Levi told me too."

"That sounds wrong. We normally try to escape from Bradley. Levi must have some sort of plan. In either case, can you fight?"

I grab my sword hilts and plug in the outermost set of blades. I draw them with a flourish. "You bet I am."

Marco smiles wanly. "I certainly hope so. Last guy we had that couldn't fight well ended up dead."

I wince. "Okay, yeah, I'm going to try not to die."

"Good." He pats me on the shoulder. "Play it safe."

"Same to you." I say, then turn back to the enemy ship. It's now clear that it's Bradley's, seeing as it has his emblem painted on the main sail. A unicorn with a sword poking out of it, silvery blood dripping down the creature's flank.

Bradley is a touch disgusting in his choice of emblems, but what can I say?

I ready my 3DMG and prepare to fire off the twin hooks.

From behind me somewhere, Levi's voice rings out. "Ready your shit or get ready to die!"

I tense up. The enemy ship is within hailing distance, all of the on deck fires put out by now.

I can see several of the enemy, many of whom look more like monsters than men. One with bull horns and a head to match. Another has three rocks spinning around his head lazily.

In the middle, a pompously dressed man looks out over us with a sneer on his face. I recognize his face from the descriptions: Log blond hair, beady eyes, hook nose. Permanent sneer. This is Bradley.

Looks like the demons were right.

That specific thought made me cringe just thinking it.

The two boats are within 3DMG range. I step towards the rail, but Marco puts his hand on my shoulder again. Seriously, what's it with him and shoulders?

"Wait for Levi's signal."

I nod and freeze in place.

"GO!" Comes the roar from behind us.

I take a flying leap over the railing, admiring the azure blue water for a fraction of a second before launching a cable at the enemy's hull. It lands with a solid thunk and my trajectory is altered significantly. I twist around and fire my other hook at our own ship, and start reeling in.

The 3DMG groans as it tries to draw the two massive weights together. I glance up to see my progress only to see the guy with the horns preparing to take a giant axe to the cable on his end.

"Oh, no you don't!" Comes the battlecry.

I look back towards our ship to see that Sasha and Connie are sprinting along the wire towards me.

For a brief second, I can't help but wonder if these two could make it big in the circus. I bet they could, and make it better than any other. At least, until they started eating people. Do demons eat people? I never learned that. Maybe they're all vegetarians.

Yeah right.

Connie springs right over me, his legs catching fire as he lands, making a large dramatic effect. Sasha catapults off of his shoulders and grabs the shaft of the axe that the minotaur is holding. Sasha then proceeds to burn the handle into ash blowing away with the wind, and the heavy blade goes tumbling into the ocean.

Mikasa is the next to cross, also pulling off tightrope walking like it was as easy as walking on the normal ground. She grabs the front collar of the minotaur's shirt and hauls him backwards overboard to join the blade of his weapon.

The trio disappears out of sight, and while I can still hear fighting going on around me, I can't see anything. There's the occasional person thrown overboard, but that's about it.

At least, until Mikasa comes back, two borrowed swords in hand, slashing at a horde of human males each with swords of their own. As I watch, each slice finds multiple marks but sheer numbers mean Mikasa is steadily being pushed back. She climbs out onto the wire without even looking back and growls back at me.

"Free this cable."

"What, the one you're standing on?" I ask in mild confusion.

Mikasa nods, never taking her eyes of the enemies swarming her.

Oh, this is gonna hurt. I release my cable, and it snaps back into its coil in a blink. Mikasa had turned just before I released it and had leapt towards me.

I stretch out a hand to catch hers. As if in slow motion, I can see her coming closer, closer…

Our fingers brush, but the swing back to our ship from releasing the anchor had taken me too far away.

Without thinking, I release the brake on the other cable, allowing it to pay out and allow me to reach the falling fighter. This time, her firm grip interlocks with mine.

I close my eyes as I hit the brake, the force twisting me around into a wild spin, Mikasa still dangling below me.

"Are you okay?" I call down.

Mikasa replies by ripping on of my blades out of its holster and tossing it towards the enemies crowding the edge of the enemy ship.

To her credit, despite all the things going on to make aiming hard, she still managed to take down two of them with that one blade.

"Yes. Pull us up."

I start to reel in my other cable, but I stop when I notice that the two boats are drifting together. If I ull us up, we'll get crushed.

Instead, I pay out the cable and watch as the two ships come closer and closer until-

_Crunch_

The two ships collide and the two of us get knocked around. Thankfully, Mikasa has grip strength to go with her other strength.

The two ships settle together and grind to a halt. I look both ways, but there doesn't seem to be a safe way out. There doesn't seem to be any not so safe ways either.

I look down at Mikasa.

"So… what now?"

She glares up at me. "You're the biggest idiot I've met in a long time."

She lets go of my hand and drops under the water, the churning froth instantly hiding her from sight.


End file.
